A Charlotte Mason Education

in Our Home

"I am, I can, I ought, I will."

This year we adopted the school motto which Charlotte Mason Schools had in the 1800s.

I have added what it means to us after each part.

am...Let us allow the child to be "who he is" and know his strengths and limitations and his unique worth. He knows that he is a creation of his God and should honor him as such~ in his deeds and words and in his relationships and responsibilities.

can...Let us build each other up and encourage one another. "You can do it!" Sometimes we must ask for help from each other or find better ways or ask God to help us in our efforts, but we CAN do all things through Christ who strengthens us.

ought ...to serve my God by serving my fellow man. First we must learn what is right by studying God's word and by prayer. We do what's right because it's what God would want us to do.

will... When we know how to do what's right, we then must will to do what's right even though it may be difficult for us or even if we don't want to do it. My will be Thy will.

I am, I can, I ought, I will.

omeschooling the CM way means we write lots of things like recipes, instructions on how to build an ant farm, lists of words that remind us of Thanksgiving, poems by John Ciardi, personal nature journals, Bible verses, favorite sections from Little House on the Prairie, book reviews written on Amazon, dictations from Aesop's Fables and narrations from The Girl of Limberlost. All this practice makes us good writers, spellers, punctuators, and authors.

ath is counting pennies, nickles, dimes and quarters and counting them by ones, twos, fives, and tens. We use colored dry beans to add with and also things like seashells, rocks, crayons and anything else that hands can hold. We use textbooks too, but we like to solve problems like: "What is 40% off the shirt I want to buy? or How do I balance my checkbook?"

or history CM style, we read good books aloud like Little Britches, Johhny Tremain, DeAulaire's Abe Lincoln and Greek Myths. We prefer to read whole books for history instead of textbooks so we can learn "whole history" rather than "snippets of history." If we read a biography about Ben Franklin, we read a whole history about the life and times. Included in this biography will be other famous people like George Washington, Madison, Jefferson, Sam Adams and the Sons of Liberty. We learn of the hustle and bustle of life on the harbor and in the streets of old New England. We may even cross-stitch a sampler like young colonial girls did back then or make a quill pen to write with!

eography ... We will learn our states and capitals, but we may also visit there via a good book or via a children's picture atlas. We may "tour" Burma by reading a book about the Judson's who were missionaries there or "visit" Africa by reading about David Livingstone. A video to the Pyramids of Egypt will help us see not just the monuments themselves, but a way of life which a people still live today. A inexpensive globe is a must for finding our way about this big earth of ours (and it makes for a good bowling ball for little ones).

atural Science... We enjoy many nature walks together. We hunt bird nests in winter when the snow banks are so high we can just reach up and snatch in vacant one from a tree. We make seed charts from the seed pods that form in our gardens in fall or gather them from wild plants that grow in our pastures. We identify birds, insects, grasses, wildflowers, flower parts, rocks and fossils.

We watch our cows and sheep give birth in spring and continually observe them caring for their young. We keep nature journals and try to record in them weekly--drawings of leaves, and pressed leaves, drawings of sharptail grouse and feathers. We've found that to get to know nature is much like reading a "living book"--we get the whole picture of God's creation rather than someone else's short analysis. We do use and need good field guides however.

oems are for Fridays! We gather all the poetry books we own and begin paging through them to our favorites. We take turns reading them aloud to one another--some new and many repeat favorites. Sometimes we memorize a poem or record one in our nature journal or copybook.

eading is a love...Chronicles of Narnia, My Friend Flicka, A Girl of Limberlost, On to Oregon, Ping, Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, The Real Mother Goose, Aesop's Fables, Just So Stories, Carry On Mr. Bowditch, Little Britches, Rifles for Watie, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, The Very Hungry Caterpillar...and the list goes on. Narrations come easily when one is reading "the best book ever written."

inging... We sing songs together...Michael Row the Boat Ashore, Buffalo Gals, Crawdad Song, Shortnin' Bread, Jesus Loves Me, Great Is Thy Faithfulness, Happy Trails. Some of us play piano, some guitar, some play pan lids or sticks. We listen to Handel, Chopin, Beethoven and Bach. Sometimes we listen gladly, sometimes not, but we listen and we know what good music is. We listen to little brother learn to play the piano (joyful noise?) and big sister play her Moonlight Sonata. We also like to play our Country/Western loud while working!

et's not forget that to homeschool is to get along with those in our home and to function as a family. We learn to be patient with little brother's legos while we read aloud. We learn to help another bake a cake for the first time. We try to teach our family something we know well...how to change a flat tire, water the garden seeds without washing them away, how to feed a weak lamb by bottle. We learn to work together . Our life isn't perfect and yes, there are differences and picking and fighting too, but we keep on trying. We try to have good habits and good manners at home first and other places second. We respect each other and each other's things. Homeschooling is life and we learn best by being real and active parts of this life. What a "good life" we have.

lessings,

Jody

mail me.omeiscussion

Some of my favorite C.M. Links....

Karen and Dean Andreola... have written a few books which are simply wonderful for C.M. educators. Karen has republished man of the original articles from Parents' Review and has her own back issues available. Andreolas also do many conventions.

Ambleside Online... a free curriculum Charlotte Mason style.

Commit Your Works to the Lord...a website by a friend Mary Roddy. Lots of wonderful ideas for your C.M. style homeschool.

A Charlotte Mason Education... by Debra Taylor-Hough has everything from convention notes and schedules to the liveliest discussion board on C.M. methods.

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